APOD: Eclipse at Moonset (2014 Oct 09)

[APOD Robot]

Eclipse at Moonset

Explanation: The Pacific Ocean and Chilean coast lie below this sea of clouds. Seen through the subtle colors of the predawn sky a lunar eclipse is in progress above, the partially eclipsed Moon growing dark. The curved edge of planet Earth's shadow still cuts across the middle of the lunar disk as the Moon sinks lower toward the western horizon. In fact, from this southern hemisphere location as well as much of eastern North America totality, the Moon completely immersed within Earth's shadow, began near the time of moonset and sunrise on October 8. From farther west the total phase could be followed for almost an hour though, the darker reddened Moon still high in the night sky.

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[Indigo_Sunrise]

This is a very pretty image.

I watched a good bit of the eclipse from my parking lot at work - though I might've looked a bit strange standing out there with binoculars. Totally worth it, though.

[rwlott]

Yesterday's teaser caption, "Pixels in Space," had me curious to know how it specifically applies to today's gorgeous "Eclipse at Moonset" photo. However, before posting this comment just now, I opened APOD in another browser window and returned to yesterday's entry only to discover that the teaser caption has been changed to the more appropriate, though generic, "Moonset." Curiouser.

[Chris Peterson]

Yesterday's teaser caption, "Pixels in Space," had me curious to know how it specifically applies to today's gorgeous "Eclipse at Moonset" photo. However, before posting this comment just now, I opened APOD in another browser window and returned to yesterday's entry only to discover that the teaser caption has been changed to the more appropriate, though generic, "Moonset." Curiouser.

"Pixels in Space" is the teaser used when the next day's APOD hasn't yet been selected.

[Boomer12k]

Lovely picture....I got up around two am...got me some breakfast...was going to go to a 24/7 store to get bread, and remembered, HEY...tonight was the eclipse. (nearly forgot!)... Turned, and there it was ...went in and got my camcorder, snapped some shots, and a small video clip. And another more "total" when i got back....these are around 3:30am PDT.
You can observe them at my drop box.....
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dknaoykm8df8 ... WZvYa?dl=0

These are West Coast, USA....
Enjoy.

:---[===] *

[Ron-Astro Pharmacist]

I switched the TV on Sunday morning to hear a CBS reporter talking about a NASA program investigating capturing an asteroid and placing it a lunar orbit possibly by the year 2020.

http://www.nasa.gov/content/what-is-nas ... t-mission/

While studying it someone may one day witness the Earth eclipsing the sun as the moon eclipses the asteroid as the asteroid eclipses the spacecraft. Now that would be quite the lucky astronaut. Too bad there are no total lunar eclipses in 2020. Might need to wait until 2021 for that Nightfall. In fact we could call redirect an "Asimov"e. He might have smiled at that.

[MarkBour]

... and remembered, HEY...tonight was the eclipse. (nearly forgot!)... Turned, and there it was ...

Nice, Boomer, you got some great shots! So you can't say that your area is *always* cloudy when the fun happens! (But it can sure be a problem in the Pacific Northwest USA, if that's where you are.) Anyway, glad you got a good view of this one

I thought it was interesting to watch the movement of the shadow over the face of the Moon. Earlier in history, when people didn't have this all figured out, if they at least knew it was Earth's shadow as it came between the Sun and Moon, then as one stands there on a point on the surface of the Earth, the Moon appears to be setting, moving down to the horizon, so one would most simply imagine the shadow of Earth coming in from the bottom and moving up to cover the Moon, but that's not what happens. The shadow progresses in the other direction.

On the other hand, if you think of the light source, the Sun, and it was coming up over the other horizon, and if you thought of it as a race, and had made the measurements that the Sun goes around the Earth faster than the Moon, then you'd get the correct conclusion, that the shadow must move in the "forward" direction. I guess that's right, in a way, but it seems a misguided way to think about it when one has the more complete Copernican model of things to work from.

Still, I think the motion of the shadow is an interesting clue to the puzzle as man considered it back in antiquity. I am pretty sure there are a lot of other little subtleties to the motion of the three bodies that I have never noticed or learned of as well. APOD is a great place to find out about those.

[PeteK]

Hey! I I guess I did a decent job after all - with my "ecl"-ookies. It looks like one on the left.

[Ron-Astro Pharmacist]

Hey! I I guess I did a decent job after all - with my "ecl"-ookies. It looks like one on the left.

Not bad but I think the background stars might look better with diffraction spikes. Maybe they'll do an APOD - Potentially "Edible" Moons !

[PeteK]

hey maybe they could do an APOD for such moons on "April 1st" - just ahead of the April 4,'15 "4 minute" (total) eclipse.

[down to earth]

This is a really beautiful APOD!!

[Coil_Smoke]

Yesterday's teaser caption, "Pixels in Space," had me curious to know how it specifically applies to today's gorgeous "Eclipse at Moonset" photo. However, before posting this comment just now, I opened APOD in another browser window and returned to yesterday's entry only to discover that the teaser caption has been changed to the more appropriate, though generic, "Moonset." Curiouser.

"Pixels in Space" is the teaser used when the next day's APOD hasn't yet been selected.

I have always wondered if 'Pixels In Space' was inspired by the 'Pigs In Space' skits on "The Muppet Show" ?

[Coil_Smoke]

Why is there a bright band of light stretching across the the face of the Moon? It seams to be delineating the edge of the umbra.

[MargaritaMc]

I've just come across this unusual view of the eclipse on the Planetary Society's website, taken by the Messenger spacecraft from Mercury orbit.

From Mercury orbit, MESSENGER watches a lunar eclipse
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla

2014/10/10 15:07 UTC

I don't believe I've ever seen anything like this before. We've watched our Moon pass into Earth's shadow from Earth's surface, Earth orbit, and lunar orbit, but from Mercury orbit? Just watch as our enormous moon -- a quarter the diameter of the planet -- just winks out as it passes into Earth's long shadow.


NASA / JHUAPL / CIW

MESSENGER views the October 8, 2014 lunar eclipse

From orbit at Mercury, MESSENGER captured 31 photos of Earth and the Moon between 9:18 and 10:18 UTC. As MESSENGER watched, the Moon crossed into Earth's shadow, in a lunar eclipse that was witnessed by much of North America and the Pacific Ocean.

MESSENGER Mission News
October 10, 2014

The animation was constructed from 31 images taken two minutes apart, from 5:18 a.m. to 6:18 a.m., EDT. The images start just before the Moon entered the darkest part of the Earth's shadow (the umbra).

"From Mercury, the Earth and Moon normally appear as if they were two very bright stars," noted Hari Nair, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, in Laurel, Md. "During a lunar eclipse, the Moon seems to disappear during its passage through the Earth's shadow, as shown in the movie."

MESSENGER was 107 million kilometers (66 million miles) from the Earth at the time of the lunar eclipse. The Earth is about five pixels across, and the Moon is just over one pixel across in the field of view of the spacecraft's narrow-angle camera, with about 40 pixels distance between them. According to Nair, the images are zoomed by a factor of two, and the Moon's brightness has been increased by a factor of about 25 to show its disappearance more clearly.

Margarita

[starsurfer]

Hey! I I guess I did a decent job after all - with my "ecl"-ookies. It looks like one on the left.

Not bad but I think the background stars might look better with diffraction spikes. Maybe they'll do an APOD - Potentially "Edible" Moons !

Is that 47 Tucanae near the top right corner?